Today,I went to cmy sunway pyramid to check out the dynaudio and ask several items price.Do you know what he said HE DONT WANT TO WASTE HIS TIME TELLING ME THE PRICE BECAUSE ITS NOT THAT I ACTUALLY GOING TO BUY!!!!!! WTF!!! Then I asked about the cambridge audio 640a the 2nd hand he said IF I TELL YOU THE PRICE YOU HAVE TO BUY .I was so embarrased in front of my friend the way he treat us,I know that I am still young but I really interested to buy those model later .i WILL NEVER GO THERE AGAIN .I was trying to check out the price of the speaker and he ask me not to touch the speaker bcoz i might scratch it???! he think i am 10 years old is it.

Also i'd like to add that you get different treatment from different branches of CMY. 1 Utama old wing is friendly and prices are negotiable while at Sungai Wang, prices are mostly higher, non-negotiable but not rude.

Everyone has such a bad experience before. Unfortunately this is a part of life. A forum such as this allows us to share the pain of such experience and also so that others can know about it and avoid getting the same experience.

I remember getting such an experience, many years ago, from some young salesgirl in a DVD shop in Sungei Wang. I was searching through the stacks of DVD and took out one to tell her I want it. She scolded me for searching through that pile because I should be searching through the pile of 'offer discs'. But she kept quiet when I was searching. I kept quiet and put the disc back and she scolded somemore saying she will do it because I will mess the position up. I threw down the DVD and walk away. Well, my response can only be to NOT buy any DVD from Sungei Wang. And of course today when I walk past, that shop is bankrupt and no longer in business. This is the meaning of 'Karma'.

Over my 25 years enjoying hifi, there have been other occasions of getting ill treatment from shops. But sometimes we must also be aware that 'karma' or 'cause and effect' can apply both ways as well. For e.g. many years ago, a friend from Singapore visited me and I brought him over to some of the hifi shops here. We visited this very established shop in Jln Pasar. When we left, the sales assistance shouted at us "chou chau hou chow lar !" = 'Good riddance, why didn't you bastards leave earlier !'. I was upset but didn't say anything. Why ? It was because I realized my friend from Singapore was very insensitive. He was commenting LOUDLY about how he thinks the sound sucks. We were sitting at the back, piggy-backing on some customers who were actually auditioning a system and my friend was criticizing the system like nobody's business. In this instance, he offended the shopkeeper because he probably sabotaged that sale. IMO, my friend should have kept his opinions to himself. I stopped him quickly but too late, he has already spoken his piece. So, sometimes be aware things like this can happen. In instances like this, who is at fault ? I would think the shop in Jln Pasar is at fault as they were damn rude. BUT being decent human beings, it is also true my friend SHOULD HAVE kept his opinions to himself. Why ? Because I myself was a victim of such a person before.

I was interested in a new preamp but I wanted to sell my old one first and of course would like to get a high price. My friend kindly put my old preamp into his showroon system and very soon someone was very interested to buy. But another visitor started chit-chatting with the listener, make friends and then told him "this one is good lar but I have better one in my house. You SHOULD NOT buy this one. Come over to my place, I let you listen to my preamp. It's for sale. I offer to you at good price". All this while, he didn't know that preamp he just sabotaged was mine and I was sitting quietly in the corner. My friend (owner of the hifi shop) was upset as he too lost a sale. Somemore it was to someone who was being selfish because he wanted to let go his OWN preamp. But OTOH my friend kept quiet and after they left, he just tried to console me " life is like that he said. If you like to consider, I can still accept your preamp as trade in but I cannot give you the price you want lar ". This is one of the reason why I like him so much have become very good friends with this shop owner. I took the trade-in and my friend actually offered me a price not that much lower than what I believe I would have to sell it at (after negotiations).

My only other input is to also be fair to the shop as well. Sometimes it could be circumstances that makes a shop owner not give you the best service. For e.g. I was at Audio Image and both the listening room is occupied plus my friend was rushing to finish soldering an interconnect for a customer who have been waiting patiently for over an hour (he told my friend to settle the people who wanted to audition the systems first, i.e. make sure they are comfortably in the rooms listening before he works on the cables). But then someone walked in and wanted to listen to a speaker. My friend just told his wife to inform the person to please come back another day and best to call first to set an appointment. I can see the guy was not happy. It was like the shop doesn't want to layan him - the shop owner himself didn't even want to come out to talk to him. Eventually after looking around a bit, he left and I don't think he actually came back again. In this instance, I am not sure who is at fault. I suppose my friend could have handled it better. If the guy had stayed a bit longer, I think if my friend can get the cable finished, he would have came out to talk to him. But the guy wanted more immediate attention.

Just be aware that often situations are not completely black and white. As they say there is often a thin line between good and bad. In the situation which started this thread, I would tend to agree that CMY is wrong. And I would emphathize by saying I experienced this several times before during my younger days when I first started playing hifi. But I am still very shocked how CMY told him not to touch the speaker. Cannot even touch ?!!

Yes, I have been in there twice, and will never go there again after the last time, leaving it with a bad feeling.

If you see any item, the price may be pasted on it. If you ask him how much is the best price, the response you get is " If I give you the best price, then you must buy it, otherwise don't ask" What is the logic? Sad but it really happened. Perhaps he had a bad day.

I think I will be far happier to make my purchases from one of the following: Hi-way laser and Audio Image in SS2. In Amcorp Mall - A&L , Audio synthesis, Acoustique systems, Asia Sound, Hifi Exchange corner. Much more friendlier people there who don't demand that you buy from them.

Last edited by happett on Sun May 02, 2010 9:32 am; edited 1 time in total

To all dealers ---> u all's in service industry please more customer oriented!!! now days a lot of customers change their minds little bit...they will go to extra service personal and dont mind paid a litle bit of money 4 it..

maggielurva wrote:a lot of music lover are afraid to go into high-end hifi shops for the fear of being "looked down" and we have this to say: "put away your phobia, everyone is treated like a king at CMY!"

yep Cant even touch!!!Thats is my secondn time I went there the first time I just walk around and ask him aboun headphone amp and when I ask him can I try the sound he said why dont you bring your disk diff disk diff sound,I agree bt at least juz play the sound right .second time my worst ever.dont touch the speaker wth!!! I think he have always been like these.I actually have been to many hifi shop cmy sg wang and balakong.Both of the shop treat me so well.at least they will let me hear some sound.I will nvr go there again.I hope some sifu here will teach him a lesson hehe

I wouldn't dare to say a young chap does not have the buying power to buy the speakers. It might not be now but they will probably buy one in near future if disposable income permits.

I am not sure about how the speakers were being touched. If piano gloss black, then it is very easy to be scratched and highly apparent to naked eyes. To be fair, it is not easy to sell something with scratches.

Just to share my experience. There is a case where a man in his 30s tapped the woofer a few times with his fingers and then press the woofer lining of the PB12-Plus subwoofer. In a polite manner, I told him, "See Tou, mmm koi mou hou tim woofer." He was not pleased by my remark. He left soon after. You can test whatever you want but please do not touch the woofer. Not that we are being rude or whatever, if anything is to happen then it would be quite disastrous for both parties.

You can test whatever system that you want and ask many questions as you wish but just not those 'selecting fruits' kung-fu style (tapping, hitting, pressing, etc) on the drivers.

I was trying to check the price juz imagine.he dun want to xplain to me bcoz l8er I will go and buy with another person wth this is the first a dealer dun want to xplain to customer hehe.hfkaki u hav ur own shop can u tell where is it maybe ican drop by thanks.

Htkaki has raised a very good point which I hope that the people in this forum can bear in mind. It do bring out the -OTHER- person's point of view.

Now, being rude and looking down on anyone can NEVER be excused. But we also should be mindful of ourselves. To be honest, I have frequently been aghasted at how some of the people who visit hifi shops can treat the equipment on display. It makes it worse when sometimes it is -MY- equipment that they are mishandling/mistreating. For e.g. I had already committed to buy this amp but was waiting for another day to take it home as I did not have space in my car to put it. My friend left it on the shop display where it is accessible. Someone walked in. He started to play with the knobs, turn all the way left and right ROUGHLY. He roughly turned the input selector knob and so forth. How did I feel ? I actually walk over and asked him not to do it. He didn't look pleased. To be honst, he was so crude and rough with the amp, I didn't give a f**k (yes, I was that upset). If it was a speaker, I would even have asked him to keep his stupid hands off it, telling him it's mine because I just bought it. In this case, I am a customer and not the dealer but it so happens the equipment being ill-treated is mine because I just bought it.

A similar scenario can happen to any of you here as well. A dealer whom you might have made friends with might agree to put your stuff there for sale on consignment. Someone walks in and start tapping or knocking your equopment. Or start pushing the drivers of your speaker. What happens if he breaks it ? A very common mistake made by people is to turn the platter of a turntable on display. Some expensive turntables have DC motors which should NOT be turned the other way round. But I have seen people happily spin the turntable like they are playing a toy, one way, then violently the other. If he burns the motor of a Clearaudio Reference Standard whose motor costs a lot, what can the dealer do ? By right he must pay but it is guaranteed he will refuse and he will then go around blaming the dealer as arrogant, etc. What happens if it is the motor of a vintage, very rare Goldmund Reference ? Want to buy spare also cannot find anymore. Yet it is one of only a few hundred made in the world.

So, we must never accept any ill treatment by dealers. But we ourselves must also be mindful that we must do our part as well.

Support the good dealers. Boycott the bad. But always be aware of the fine thin line that often separates a situation where a victim can sometimes be the guilty. That is my motto.

viboys88 wrote:I was trying to check the price juz imagine.he dun want to xplain to me bcoz l8er I will go and buy with another person wth this is the first a dealer dun want to xplain to customer hehe.hfkaki u hav ur own shop can u tell where is it maybe ican drop by thanks.

Hi, mine is rather far away; Seremban. A km from Seremban toll to be exact It is in the same commercial center as Quinn Beef Noodle and 'Chicken bread' Lucky Restaurant. My customers mostly from KL / PJ.

ryder, Michael was the ex-employee of Asia Sound and Unicorn. Quite knowledgable uncle in Hi-Fi. I had quite good experience with CMY 1U and Balakong. Very good treatment at A&L.

WongKN, I feel for you.

A person who truly appreciates Hi-Fi / HT will surely treat the equipments with care and 'respect'. Gently touching it is ok but not like using Shaolin's 'Yat Zhi Sun Kung' or 'Kam Lar Sau' to touch / fiddle it

Some ppl have fantastic 'skill'. By using their 'Yat Zhi Sun Kung' (tapping the woofer / driver cone with finger(s)), they can come to a conclusion how deep or good is the driver via listening to the 'duup duup' sound being produced (when tap with finger).

Look at it this way: there are more obnoxious customers than there are rude hifi dealers. Shop employees don't get to pick and choose what customers walk into the shop, or pre-emptively stop customers from manhandling their equipment. So I say, give the shop the benefit of the doubt, since customers that are not happy always have the choice of going somewhere else - no one 'owes' it to make every customer feel special as it is entirely up to the shop whose business they choose to pursue, and ultimately they will reap what they sow in their success or failure in business.

And no, I am not in the business, just another customer who has had my share of good and bad service.

In this industry or any service industry for the matter one has to be prepared to meet many manycolourful characters.

If an items is on display, it basically means its up for viewing and for sale. If its sold "remove" it from display, as not to get it damaged or annoying the buyer when customers fiddle the item which gets into a sticky situation.

Have any of you seen any signs put up to inform customers not to fiddle with items or if its sold, I have not. Similar in the auto industry, car sold not for viewing but other car "can look see look see".

"Once Damaged Considered Sold"

My benchmark for an Audio retailer would be Asia Sound, A&L Audio (AmCorp), Audio Synthesis, ATS Racks and CMY 1U. Asia Sound being the first of my choice.

Was in the market looking for a TT upgrade ( a used unit at the famous flea market ) and stumbled upon Asia Sound. Eddie and Mike spent a good one hour with me and wifey demo-ing the various TT's in their stable and answering my many naive questions. Of course i did not get it that day ( they were still pleasant when we parted ways ) but a few weeks later. And the rest is history.

It's the "tact" of the sales person that should be polished not the business entity. Each business entity has their respective "motto" but the indivivdual who manages that outlet may not be mindful of the "motto".

A simple " Sir, you have a look around and please feel free to ask for assistance." and if there are do's and don't highlight it to the customer. Most importantly give room for the customer to view the products.

Pertama Audio..(Pertama complex, BB Plaza/Sungei Wang, SS2 as I recall), opened in late 70's, boom days were 80's to early 90's...closed out approaching the 21st century. They were retailers for Denon, Infinity, Kef, Acoustic Research, etc

cmboy wrote:Pertama Audio..(Pertama complex, BB Plaza/Sungei Wang, SS2 as I recall), opened in late 70's, boom days were 80's to early 90's...closed out approaching the 21st century. They were retailers for Denon, Infinity, Kef, Acoustic Research, etc

Good memory cmboy. Actually it's SS22 Damansara Jaya (not SS2).They weren't only retailers but were the country agents for the above brands.They also carried Mission/Cyrus & Wharfedale.

I don't think they did Acoustic Research, but Audio Research (ARC) instead.

They still have some presence in Singapore (as a holding company of sorts).

the story of balakong is kinda very long story. that they seriously insulted my feeling. and imho. they are seriously fast change in altitude. if there is ppl wanna buy high end stuff. they can immediately leave me alone while they are in fact in discussion with me of another deal. no money, giving u a lot of fake smile.. got money. they smile so happily to u.. despite the fact i helping them secure more than 4-5 deals successfully with each ppl buying more than RM 10K stuff. in fact they offer their customer of :"take it home, hear it first, if not happy, then u can get full refund within 3 months" and take the item back and resell as BRAND NEW UNITs."lolpitty for the rest of customer who actually bought the so call brand new units though..

i even once bring a friend who wanna buy ProAc Tabelet Reference 8.my friend was cash ready. waitting in CMY of balakong jusco.we were leave alone standing there for 3 hours. without chair to sit.while the person in charge of there keep entertaining a fella who bought a NAIM CDP from him. and keep entertain that fella in choosing discs..in the end my friends keeps the cash in his pocket and head out from the shop.

for your information. the person in charge in Sungei wang is the BOSS. AKA TAUKE.

I don't think they did Acoustic Research, but Audio Research (ARC) instead.

They still have some presence in Singapore (as a holding company of sorts).

SS2 PJ got lah..(SS2/61 to be precise). I recall visiting them there to audition an Infinity Sub for my HT system then. They were a couple of doors away from SS2/PJ Seng Hup (now also gone). Those were the days. Did they do AReseach?.. can't recall seeing any.

Anyway.. KLAV show coming up in July.. Be patient, save your money and bound to be offers there.. KLAV PASAR SIANG & MALAM!...

I visited Coherance HIFI in Adelphin to look at Jeff Rowland about 2 months ago. The ower Ron Ong was so friendly though I did not buy anything at all. He even invited me to listen to his latest MBL speakers. On the same trip, I visited Sound Decision too. Sammy Low the owner was very friendly and polite though again I did not buy anythign at all.

I was very impressed with both these gentlemen for they treated me more like a new friend met in a pub (THOUGH I DID NOT BUY ANYTHING ). I really hope most if the local dealers (those snobbish rude bastards) could look up to them and improve their customer's service (if they know what customer's service is at all). I am not generalising all the local HIFI dealers are rude and snobbish as I met quite a number of good ones.

By the way, I also found out that the price of the Jeff Rowland I was looking for in Coherance was a lot cheaper than what I could find in Malaysia before I even started to bargain. As a cost conscious bargain huting buyer, I bought the JR a month later from Coherance when I visited Singapore again. I absolutely like the price, the service and the friendliness. Absolutely no regret.

SS2 PJ got lah..(SS2/61 to be precise). I recall visiting them there to audition an Infinity Sub for my HT system then. They were a couple of doors away from SS2/PJ Seng Hup (now also gone). Those were the days. Did they do AReseach?.. can't recall seeing any.

Anyway.. KLAV show coming up in July.. Be patient, save your money and bound to be offers there.. KLAV PASAR SIANG & MALAM!...

Hmmmm... actually, you could be right. at one time, Pertama was all over town like mushrooms. Well, the SS22 D'sara Jaya outlet was where the main office was located. One of the Pek family head honchos is always seen there. Steven Pek if i remember correctly.

Even TROPICAL Audio had an SS2 outlet back in the 90s.Oh well, those were the golden era of 2 channel stereo. No home could be considered complete without a hifi set. Then AV came in and slowly eroded the 2-channel market.

But just like vinyl, 2-channel is making a comeback slowly again once people tire of their 99.9 channel systems and a whole spinning cocktail of multiple source speakers that actually doesn't really play well of down to earth honest stereo music.

Now back to arrogant hifi shops ... yes, there are a few of these. But heck, the consumer's best response would be to walk away and not let them earn your money (and yeah, give them a reputation bashing in forums like this as well). Same goes for arrogant customers as well, but this is not in favour of the retail shop as they technically cannot "close" their doors selectively to the multitude of different walk-ins they need to face every day.

In Kedah also there was an arrogant saleswoman which was the taukeh 2nd wife. The hifi shop is Soundtech located at Central Square, Sg. Petani. Wow... this arrogant lady is very famous of her arrogant attitude. This make the Soundtech shop always no customer due to poor services and the rudeness of the lady.

Athough no customer visited, but the lady looks busy with her laptop....hahahaha... I guess she was so busy chatting with the internet therefore maybe she assumed that the customer are disturbing her chatting privacy.

Now her husband had open a new Soundtech branch at Village Mall. And the salesgurl there was very polite, good looking, young and serve me so well ... I hope the 2nd taukeh wife wont shift her location to the Village Mall.

I'm not angry to the lady although i had been 'abused' by her arrogant reaction to me. But i feel funny how could a business woman so stupid and make the customers keep away from the shop.

Pertama Audio -was- the distributor/agent for Audio Research, Mission, and numerous other brands. I am sure because I checked out the Mission Cyrus amp at the SgWang branch and fainted from the price. Then they were so arrogant that one of my friends wrote an official letter of complaint about Pertama to Audio Research HQ in the U.S. !!

Do be aware that many of the hifi shops, the best ones anyway, are the so-called 'mom and pop' kind of shop. The owner is the one who is manning the shop and they are typically the ones who give best service. They are also almost always a single shop only, no chain store like branches all over the country. I suppose its because it's their own personal business and reputation which is why they always gives best service. These kind of shops typically also don't have a lot of storage space. So their equipment are usually all over the shop itself. Thus we, as customers, must also be mindful when we visit these kind of shops.

Personally for myself, if I get shitty service from any shop (hifi, DVD, etc), I always ask myself first if I might have inadvertently did anything wrong. I.e. was I being an unreasonable customer. If I have did my own self searching and honestly felt I did nothing wrong, only then would I put judgement on the shop. But I would boycott that shop forever. But first and foremost, it is important to also look inwards to oneself. Let me relate an experience I had that till today I have never forgot.

A long time ago, there was this hifi shop named 'Uni HiFi'. It was originally in Pertama Complex, opposite Sogo (at that time, Sogo wasn't even built). It was the shop where I bought my complete hifi system. I got to become extremely close friends with David the owner. He and two other guys, Albert & Henry, the four of us were very good friends.

But there was once an incident which happened which until today, still sticks to my mind. It happened many years ago. All of us were in David's new shop - he had just shifted to Subang Parade. There was something (forgot what equipment) both Albert & I wanted to buy. But we wanted a very big discount. We assumed that since we are such good friends, what we demanded, David must give. As we started negotiating, we started to bring friendship into the bargaining table. We started pushing David very hard. Because we were so close, we even know roughly the kind of margin David was making on -some- of his equipments. Eventually we even started to calculate for David how much his cost price was and told him how much he can make from us and so forth. In the heat of the bargaining, it didn't ocurred once to either Albert or I that we were in fact going too far. We should not have taken David's friendship for granted. He shared some private info with us like how much some of his equipment cost. But we started to take advantage of that generousity and started insisting all his equipment have that amount of margin and we started to tell him how he needs to do business. The fact was it was wrong of us and the most important thing in the end was that in our eagerness, we forgot that we were friends first and foremost, and only customer-seller secondary. In the end, we didn't buy because Daivd couldn't give us the kind of discount we wanted. In reality, we assumed he had that margin of markup but he did NOT, not for that brand that we wanted. It would have been below cost for him if he had given in to us. Quite a bit below cost in fact. But when we left, we spoke several very nasty words to him, including how he is now arrogant and his shop now very big and he don't value old customers anymore. Actually we weren't serious but we spoke those words somewhat in jest. But what is important is we said them. And we never thought how much it would hurt him. We forgot the decency of how friends should behave.

But the truth is I DIDN'T KNOW. I actually didn't realize. I was too caught up in the bargaining and the situation. David didn't call us for several weeks after that and it was only then that I realized something was wrong. Eventually he confided with Henry how much he was hurt by what Albert & I did on that day. But David simply swallowed the incident. Eventually when we all got together again a few months later, he ignored what had happened and we were good friends again. It was only years later that Henry told me how much David was hurt by our careless and thoughtless actions and words.

So this is why I have learnt, the hard way. that there is always two sides to everything. And the other side can sometimes be not obvious to us at all. One of my motto in life is "we THINK we know but in reality we DON'T". So it is always important to look back inwards into ourselves, carefully, in any incidence before we pass final judgement. Or take final action.

Amir wrote:In Kedah also there was an arrogant saleswoman which was the taukeh 2nd wife. The hifi shop is Soundtech located at Central Square, Sg. Petani. Wow... this arrogant lady is very famous of her arrogant attitude. This make the Soundtech shop always no customer due to poor services and the rudeness of the lady.

Athough no customer visited, but the lady looks busy with her laptop....hahahaha... I guess she was so busy chatting with the internet therefore maybe she assumed that the customer are disturbing her chatting privacy.

Now her husband had open a new Soundtech branch at Village Mall. And the salesgurl there was very polite, good looking, young and serve me so well ... I hope the 2nd taukeh wife wont shift her location to the Village Mall.

I'm not angry to the lady although i had been 'abused' by her arrogant reaction to me. But i feel funny how could a business woman so stupid and make the customers keep away from the shop.

Budussss....

bROTHER,

Is the Village Mall the one next to Tesco I frequent a hi fi shop there whenever I'm up north once every 2 weeks (we have a highway job in Kedah). I drop by and often have long chats with Steven Ooi, very friendly character and often ended up buying something . Still eyeing the Audio Space amps and a couple of gorgeous TT which I'm still considering. In fact at one time I tried to persuade them to set up shop in Kota Damansara but now CMY has opened up one ..

Anyway, not sure which lady you are referring to but the PYT at the shop is also almost always online too but pretty helpful.. remembered she sold off a couple off Furutech's plug during the last years KLIAV.

Usually Malaysian retailers expect customers to have a certain degree of knowledge before enquiring high end products. To a certain degree, they are correct. You almost certainly dont start off at the top of the food chain. So when you are shabilly dressed, poor knowledge,insensitive, ignorant, rude and carry the attitude of.... I have money and can afford to buy everything...you are certainly a target. Wait till you visit rude Hong Kong. They make our accused local retailers look like amateurs.Our local retailers at Asia Sound, Michael and Eddie are like angels to me. I am a newbie in turntables and they patiently educated me and my friend.I was treated well at all CMY brances. Andy Fan, Chan, Dicky and almost certainly all the staff there are very friendly and helpful. Lets show mutual respect to each other and i am sure we can enjoy the music and the retailers can make a living.We certainly need each other.

I would have to say that this is specific to a particular guy (actually only 1) as I only see him manning the CMY, Sunway Pyramid Branch. He is indeed an "asshole".. sorry really have to use that nasty word to describe him...I encounter the same thing with him. Ask him to tell price, he will say you really want ah? Tell him really want, He say you "ask ask for fun only"Finally when say "really really want" then the price he give also more expensive. Tell him I can get cheaper at other place (by the way, the other place is CMY 1U) he say go there and buy lah... So really ended up driving to 1U to buy.. in fact was in Sunway Pyramid as was there shopping but really have to waste time and money (petrol, extra parking) to drive all the way to 1U for the same item and waste the saving into the petrol and parking...As I work in Sunway, I always go there to look see look see... but now I only window shop there only.. only ask if got anything new.. then find time to go other CMY branch to buy.. think if he read this.. he know who am I.

I had a friend named Ah Chong at Alor Setar. He own a samll home audio shop at jalan putra. Everytime i visit his shop, he will set up some hifi system and ask me to hear it. He always make a movement with his hand and head moving feeling the music and will say " Huhh... tengok...high end oooo... manyak syok oooo ini mujik ... Tak bole lawan punya. Eh... u angkat UK punya. UK punya la bagusss..." I always feel happy with his character and like to buy from him... hehehe....

To all dealers ---> u all's in service industry please more customer oriented!!! now days a lot of customers change their minds little bit...they will go to extra service personal and dont mind paid a litle bit of money 4 it..

Fully agree with you. CMY Penang Branch way too arrogant. Never even bother to look at or approach customer when one shops there. No sense of customer service at all.

bassraptor wrote:My friend, who collects army memorabilia, once walked into an army surplus store in Seoul, Korea. He saw a helmet he liked, tried to get the shop-owner's attention but the guy ignored him.

Finally, he went up and asked the fellow, look, how much is that helmet

The guy turned around, looked at what my friend was pointing at and said rudely: "Too expensive for you."

I thought it was quite a funny story ...

Question....

Are the local retailers heading towards a similar direction............. Hope fully not.....

Yes, would agree with some who say it is the individual who walks into a retailers premise or at times both parties but most often not its the retailers.

As is said before its not the business entity but a specific individual who brings these unwanted negative flack from a consumer or consumers.

If they don't adopt to current times, a savy individual customer and the WEB, it would be similar to a "Dinasour's" demise into oblivion.

Inspite of being neutral and complimenting certain retailers, fully agreed with u all that Steven and his wife are inresponsible retailers. I had a very bad experience with both of them and swear i will NEVER deal with them again.

ongaaron wrote:Inspite of being neutral and complimenting certain retailers, fully agreed with u all that Steven and his wife are inresponsible retailers. I had a very bad experience with both of them and swear i will NEVER deal with them again.

Aaron,

Are we talking about the 'Steven' (Steven Ooi) in Sg Petani or any other Steven (in CMY ???). Thought the SP Steven is pretty good.. not even sure whether same girl or 'wife' I was referring to earlier. Hmm you sounded very serious about your bad experience.. care to share..

I agree sometimes we as customers need to look at ourselves. But honestly, some hifi shops are really kings at judging a book by its cover. For example age.I've been victimised enough.

I'll give an example of a hifi shop in Gurney Plaza Pg. Staffed by an old man, a younger dude and a lady. I remember going there last year with my fiancee asking to demo some bookshelf speakers. The lady was nice enough to tell me she wasn't in charge and I had to wait for the old man or the younger guy to return to the shop. We waited for half and hour browsing cds.

When the younger guy came back, I ask him to demo some bookshelfs just for comparison's sake. It started well enough.

"What amp you using?" I just told him I was using a JR Coontinum 250. Straight he yap back at me " WE are dealers of JR in Malaysia. I check only will know YOU LIE TO ME OR NOT!". Spoke as if we could only buy Jeff Rowland in Malaysia.

My other half was pist beyond crazy. Then the old man came back and I was still talking to the young guy, I said can I demo a Dyn C1 if they had in the shop, to which the old man in jest said " Father got $$$ wan" to the young guy. KNN. He thought it was a a whisper, unfortunately it was loud enough for me to hear it. I just walked away without saying anything. The next time I went with one of my friend who is a regular there and told them im seriously considering the C1, the treatment all different. " So Mister, wanna demo what bookshelve? We got ProAC high end bookshelves, good Usher, wonderful dynaudio". Bollocks.

In spite of all the warranty issues, I'm not ashamed of the fact that 80% of all my equipments are bought from SG. From afar, they look arrogant or u migh think they are kiasu, but up close, the dealers there really know the art of customer service. For example, Coherance.

I just don't get the idea of some dealers that young guys either have no money or are dependent on their old folks being "pai ka chai". TBH, its sad to see some of the sales guys being all green about other's ppl financial spending power or achievements. I work in Vietnam, and they are way way more high end retailers there than in MY, yet they've never treated me wrongly. Same as the shops I've visited in Singapore or elsewhere.

There's only a few local shops that I vouch by and are absolutely excellent, Sound Concepts and Wisma Audio in penang, Tony's shop in 1stop not bad as well except for his workers. In KL, hiwaylaser and AsiaSound is excellent as well.